Welcome

Thoughts on fitness, health, good nutrition ... and running.

Welcome to Bald Man Running, a blog launched by Frank Murphy on January 1, 2015.

In March, 2013 I was selected as a contestant for the sixth season of Fort Wayne's Smallest Winner. Through this amazing program, I learned about good nutrition, sound exercise and accountability. By October, I would lose over 88 pounds (almost 37% of my original weight)! One of the many things I acquired through FWSW was a love for running. You can retrace my weight loss journey and discover how I became a runner by reading those entries labeled "fwsw" ...

Note: Many of the blog entries on this website predate 1/1/2015. Prior to launching BMR, I had written articles for various projects, and I have imported many of them into this blog (labeled "retro").

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Not Hard

It seems a little late in the program to say this, but I had an epiphany today, so that's what I'm going to share with you. Ready for this earth-shattering revelation? Here it is ... FWSW is not hard.

My wife and I ran a 5k today and we both set personal bests again (28:02 for me and 38:30 for Rose). It felt really good. We got home and were making lunch and I was thinking about all the hard work that led to that success. My moment of basking in my own awesomeness was broken by a knock at the door. It was a man asking if he could mow my yard. I used to do that as a kid to make junk food money, but this guy was just a little younger than me and said he's just trying to pay the bills for his family. He was willing to do whatever honest work I had for him. He reminded me of someone else I had seen the previous day during a evening run ... a woman wearing a Burger King uniform whom I passed on the River Green Way. At that particular spot on the path, we were over a mile away from the nearest BK.

This is how I came to realize that FWSW isn't really hard ... and I hope you know what I mean. FWSW is challenging, difficult, and yes, it's hard ... but it's a luxury kind of hard. On the other hand, driving around the neighborhood with your lawnmower looking for work, that's hard ... walking over a mile to/from work, that's hard too ... but not in a luxury kind of way.

Just within the FWSW family, we've had folks struggling with illness, injury and other personal setbacks ... and not just of themselves, but in the lives of their family as well. Life is hard and seeing truly heroic people refuse to bow under harsh circumstances makes my struggles seem so much smaller by comparison. I'm a blessed man, and I know it.

A fresh and accurate perspective is a healthy one, and once again God is using FWSW to nudge me along the path to whole health.